Assuta Medical Center

Project Details

The Assuta Medical Center redefines state-of-the-art health services as one of the largest, safest and most advanced surgical hospitals in Israel. Designing an international healthcare facility required a deep understanding of the site and the local culture. Located between Tel Aviv’s urban high-tech district and the city’s central park, the design fosters the integration between city and nature, and as a result unites the historical and cultural landscape as part of the healing process.

Tel Aviv saw a period of intensive development in the 1930s influenced by the Bauhaus movement. Assuta’s original hospital, designed in the context of the International Style, centered on a garden that served as the waiting and circulation areas. Recreating this central public space in the new facility to connect air, light and natural beauty was a priority.

Conceived as a healing village on a cavernous rock, the building’s composition comprises a lighter white mass resting on a heavy, red stone base, recalling the image of a Mediterranean village on a mountain. The red stone continues inside the building and is cut with public spaces, evoking rock passageways in Petra, Jordan. The horizontal interplay between crevices of the podium and the glass concourse integrates the building seamlessly with Hayarkon Park.

The materiality is echoed throughout the building, stepping away from simply a clinical environment to one that is spiritually comfortable. Architecturally, the importance of nurturing spiritual wellness and spirituality is centered in the ‘contemplation space,’ a non-denominational area for prayer and meditation. Floating between the park and public area, the contemplation space is the visual core and hub of the public space.

On the ground floor a u-shaped spine anchors the complex interior program with
a sweeping gesture toward the park, while acting as a main wayfinding tool for
visitors and patients. The central public space serves as the connection between
three main programming functions: low technology areas such as the laboratory
clinics and administrative spaces; high technology areas such as diagnostic imaging,
intensive care units, procedural clinics, and operating rooms; and inpatient wards. The
relationship between each program area emphasizes efficiency, simplicity, comfort,
and excellence. For instance, separate circulation corridors avoid cross-contamination
and provide comfort and privacy. Separate entries with direct connections to
procedural areas allows surgeons on strict schedules to expediently prepare for
surgery.

In a partially private healthcare system, the design of quality technology, environment, and care standards are crucial to market-style competition amongst healthcare providers. The Center brings the most advanced level of healthcare technology in Israel, which in turn attracts clients and improves patient outcomes. Assuta boasts easily adaptable industrialized operating rooms, designed as a pre-fabricated modular system, for future integration of technology. All rooms are connected to the hospital database through a touch screen allowing for control of all systems, access to medical files, ease of communication, and modifications to monitoring devices and equipment.